I saw "The Enemy Below" many years ago and was blown away by it. I thought it was one of the best war films ever made. It stood out because it was the story the commanders of both ships, not just of one, as most every other naval film is. I felt Mitchum and Jurgens were marvelous. Then, a couple of years back I decided to spend Veteran's Day watching war movies and I decided to rent three "submarine" movies that came out almost at the same time, "The Enemy below", (19570, "Run Silent Run Deep", (1958) and "Torpedo Run", (also 1958). To my amazement, I like "The Enemy Below" the least. I found it pretentious and wordy. men of action don't spend much time philosophying about what they do. they rarely say anything they don't have to. they are much more likely to be "internal". The windy verbal essays of "The Enemy Below" seem unrealistic. It's probable that the commanders of opposing vessels felt a kinship on some level but the fact that they were trying to destroy each other would have overwhelmed that. It's true, as one poster says that "you'd never seen a film like this in the 40's". That's because the perspective of the time was that the Germans were enemies. The point of view of this film would not have obtained at the time the action of the film took place. It's outlook is thus revisionist in the worst sense of the word.
"Run Silent, Run Deep" is the real article. the attitudes of the men- tightlipped, grim faced, worried about their survivals, not the enemies'. Nobody wonders what it's like for the other guys. Right or wrong, that's the way men see war. the crackling rivalry between Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster is much more realistic than the "brothers under the skin" relationship between Mitchum and Jurgens.
"Torpedo Run" lacks credibility. Glen Ford sinks a ship he knows his family was on to get at a battleship he wants to sink. Maybe I'm naive but I don't believe he would do that- even if his family wasn't on the ship. And the ending where they escape by swimming to the surface from the bottom of the seas, (I assume they weren't exactly in the Mariannas Trench), seems unlikely, at best. I checked the web for anything about "Momsen Lungs" and found nothing, at least under that spelling. has anyone heard of an actual instance of a submarine crew escaping a sunken sub and swimming to the surface? I haven't.
"Run Silent, Run Deep" is the real article. the attitudes of the men- tightlipped, grim faced, worried about their survivals, not the enemies'. Nobody wonders what it's like for the other guys. Right or wrong, that's the way men see war. the crackling rivalry between Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster is much more realistic than the "brothers under the skin" relationship between Mitchum and Jurgens.
"Torpedo Run" lacks credibility. Glen Ford sinks a ship he knows his family was on to get at a battleship he wants to sink. Maybe I'm naive but I don't believe he would do that- even if his family wasn't on the ship. And the ending where they escape by swimming to the surface from the bottom of the seas, (I assume they weren't exactly in the Mariannas Trench), seems unlikely, at best. I checked the web for anything about "Momsen Lungs" and found nothing, at least under that spelling. has anyone heard of an actual instance of a submarine crew escaping a sunken sub and swimming to the surface? I haven't.